Over the past dozen years the Gordon Research Conference of Drug Metabolism has provided a unique environment for highly productive interaction among scientists from different disciplines toward understanding the role that metabolism of drugs and xenobiotics may have in eliciting therapeutic and/or toxic responses. At the 1984 conference recent progress in specific areas of drug metabolism will be presented and discussed in individual half-day sessions, including 1) nitrogen compounds (oxidative, reductive and toxic pathways), 2) agricultural chemicals (neuropeptides and antimetabolites for insect control), 3) secondary metabolism of glutathione conjugates, 4) newer inorganic medicinal agents, 5) CNS agents and the blood-brain barrier, and 6) the toxicological consequences of drug metabolism. In addition to contemporary issues, we will also look toward the future of drug metabolism by considering the prospects for incorporation of drug metabolism considerations early in the process of drug design. The quantitative aspects will be taken up in one session (7) on application of QSAR to pharmacokinetics. Another (8) will focus on how judicious manipulation of molecular structure can alter the metabolic pathways of compounds and thereby their ultimate biological effects. Our keynote speaker at this conference, Professor E.J. Ariens, will address and unite these issues from the vantage point of his long and influential career in the areas of drug action, metabolism and design. Running through these potentially diverse topics are several unstated but important common themes which provide a measure of continuity and unification. For example, metabolite toxicity (sessions 1, 3-6, 8); interplay of xenobiotic and endogenous pathways (sessions 2, 3, 5, 8); novel pathways and mechanisms (sessions 1, 2, 4, 5,) Finally, the application of SAR for drug metabolism to drug design will relate strongly to sessions 1, 5 and 6 in addition to the themes mentioned above. The 1984 conference will be held at Holderness School in Plymouth, NH, following the highly successful format of previous Gordon conferences: common mealtimes and dormitory facilities, morning and evening sessions with programming emphasis on discussions, and unprogrammed afternoons for mingling and poster presentations.